When Simon Birmingham meets state and territory education ministers in Adelaide on Friday, he won’t be bringing a plan to invest in Australian schools. He'll just have a list of excuses to cut funding and deny kids every chance to fulfil their potential.

Minister Birmingham needs to get the facts straight - his blame game is a distraction from the Government's failure at every turn to support better school outcomes.

It was Labor that committed to national needs based funding for schools – to lift equity and achievement by supporting students, parents, teachers and principals.

Under Labor's transparent and accountable plan, the Federal Government put in more funding and prevented states from cutting their own.

It was deals made by Christopher Pyne that let state governments off the hook to reduce their own funding commitments.

Despite their promises to match Labor's school funding plan "dollar for dollar", the Liberal’s plan would see schools worse off by $3.8 billion in 2018 and 2019 alone.

And today the Grattan Institute has confirmed that the Government's plan means all schools will lose funding in real terms from 2021.

The Minister should reveal ahead of Friday's meeting just how much each state will lose under his plan to cut school funding.

Labor believes education is the smartest investment Australia can make.

Malcolm Turnbull is talking about welfare reform and ending the cycle of disadvantage. The best investment we can make in ending disadvantage is investing in early childhood, school, vocational and higher education.